Nextperiments
by Tatsurou-san
Summary: Several years after the events of Leroy and Stitch, things are settling into an idyllic setting...until Angel begins to exhibit dangerously frightening behavior.
1. Advent

Nextperiments: Advent

13 year old Lilo Pelekai sat in the den of her home, working on a collage to commemerate the old days of her adventures to save the galaxy. It had been a few years, but there was a school project about the meaning of o'hana, and she felt this would be great. Pictures of every one of Stitch's cousins, herself, Nani, David, Jumba, Pleakley...even Gantu, Cobra Bubbles, and the Galactic Councilwoman. She was sure this project would get an A, or possibly just a lot of wierd stares. Most of her class didn't know about the aliens still.

Jumba was upstairs in his lab, working on some project or other, enjoying himself immensely. Lilo tried to ignore the occasional explosion, but she'd see what it was all about once she finished her collage. Pleakley was studying earth culture again, with the TV on full blast so as to not miss any details. Nani was in the kitchen with David; Lilo wasn't sure why David had been learning the banjo.

All of a sudden, Stitch came charging in through the dog door, looking terrified. "Stitch? What's wrong?" Lilo asked him.

"Migata! Run!" he shouted.

Suddenly the door came busting off its hinges, bringing everyone running to the front room. As everyone stared, the dust settled. Standing in the doorframe...was Angel, her eyes glowing red. She said something Lilo couldn't understand in alien speech, although she caught Stitch's name mentioned a few times.

Jumba's eyes went wide. "626? What did you do to 624 to make her so angry with you?"

"I don't know! Stitch didn't do anything!" Stitch proceeded to run away through the house, with Angel in hot pursuit, shouting at him and snarling, wrecking the house in the process.

"Jumba! What is she saying?" Lilo demanded.

"Mostly, terrible things about 626, how she's going to make him pay by-" He paused, his eyes going even wider and his face going pale. "I'm not translating that last bit."

Before long, Angel caught up to Stitch, grabbed him, and hurled him bodily through several walls. Letting out a string of what Lilo now recognized as curses, she busted down the opposite wall, running across the landscape.

Stitch sat up from where he landed, somewhat the worse for wear. "Angel..." he called out sadly, "...why?"

Lilo was tending to Stitch, with Jumba's help. Stitch wasn't all that severely damaged, despite how badly Angel had thrashed him. Jumba commented about the irresistable force meeting the indestructable object.

There was a knock on the doorframe, and Lilo went to look out. "Yes, can I help...Gantu?"

The captain leaned down to speak with her. "Yes, Lilo...can you tell me why experiment 624-I mean, Angel, broke into my ship, tore the interior to shreds, chased everyone out of engineering, sealed it, gutted it, and scrapped all primary and backup engines? If there's a reasonable explanation for all this, I'd like to know before I file the report with galactic command. This really isn't like her. It's more her nature to get others to wreck things for her."

"I don't know what's wrong with Angel!" Lilo said emphatically. "Earlier today, she tore after Stitch and beat him senseless! And she kept claiming it was his fault, for some reason, and Jumba wouldn't translate some of the things she was saying she'd do to Stitch."

"Hmm, yes, if they're anything like what she was saying while she tore my ship apart, I can see why." Gantu rubbed his forehead. "Any idea why her eyes are glowing like that? It's very unnerving."

"Eyes glowing?" Lilo thought about that, having not noticed the glow from before. "It sounds familiar..."

Gantu's communicator went off. "Captain Gantu speaking. Yes Reuben? She's done what? Well, keep an eye on her and keep me posted. And...delay the report to the Galactic Councilwoman for a time, okay? Break the communications array if you need to. Over and out." He turned back to Lilo. "Do you have any idea why Angel would rewire engineering to turn the entire level into a hyper-fusion chamber?"

"Fusion chamber?" Lilo smacked her fist into her palm. "I've got it! Come on!" She pulled Gantu along to where Stitch was fully recovered...at least physically. "Jumba!" she called to the scientist. "I think Angel may be having a problem similar to when Stitch's molecules weren't fully energized and he was going crazy because of it."

"Not possible!" Jumba said firmly. "624 was fully energized upon creation. Only 626 was removed from fusion chamber before energizing process was complete."

"Then why has she locked herself in the engineering deck of Gantu's ship, barricaded it off from everyone else, and turned the entire deck into a hyper-fusion chamber?" Lilo asked, confused. "And why are her eyes glowing like Stitch's did when he was glitching?"

"Hmm...I suppose is possible her energizing ran out, and is working based on what 626 told her regarding his own glitching...but what could cause her energy to deplete?"

Stitch wouldn't meet anyone's eyes.

"Stitch?" Lilo asked. "Do you know something?"

"...is Stitch fault...Stitch make Angel like this...ANGEL!" Giving a cry of anguish, Stitch took off, howling in agony.

"STITCH!" Lilo called, chasing after him.

She found him, after some time, at the entrance to the Engineering Bay. She could hear the humming of the hyper fusion chamber within. "Stitch?" she said, coming up to him.

Stitch sat, staring at the door, ears down, head hanging, tail still, the picture of abject misery. "Angel no let Stitch in. Angel no talk to Stitch. Angel...Angel hate Stitch now!"

"Stitch, I'm sure Angel doesn't hate you. What's wrong? What's bothering you?" Lilo sat beside Stitch. "You can tell me."

Stitch was quiet for a time. "Well..."

Suddenly Angel shouted from beyond the door. She was cursing again, but this time her shouts were a mix of pain and rage. "ANGEL!" Stitch shouted, scrabbling at the door, but an electric shock field sent him flying back. He got back to his feet. "ANGEL!" His voice was agonized, tinged with absolute suffering. Suddenly Angel screamed a long loud scream, that pettered out towards the end, a scream filled with pain. There was silence. "ANGEL!" Stitch cried in despairing anguish. Slumping into himself, he tilted his head back and howled. He continued to howl his anguish and despair, and his fear for his beloved.

Several hours later, as Stitch's voice gave out and he merely wept, the sound of running machinery from beyond the door ceased, and the locks on the door disengaged. Gently, Stitch nudged the door open. "Angel?" he whispered, almost afraid to hope. Lilo followed him.

"Boujibo," Angel whispered in response, looking up at him. She was in the center of all the massed cables and machinery, on top of a pile of soft blankets. She looked rather wan, but the smile she directed at Stitch was full of warmth and love. "Come," she called, then turned away. She then began to sing. While it had the same harmonics as her normal song, it was a different melody, without hypnotic effects, although it did make Lilo feel a little sleepy.

Climbing up the mound, Stitch and Lilo stopped with a gasp as they reached Angel. There amongst the blankets, nestled up against her, were five tiny bundles of fluff, gently fussing as she sang to them. 


	2. Cradle

Nextperiments: Cradle

Lilo sat next to Stitch, watching Angel gently tend to the newborns, alternately singing, chirping, or licking them. They were certainly the center of her world just now, and there could really be no arguement there.

Lilo smiled as she watched. "Aww, what adorable...puppies? Is that the right term?"

"It is as good as any," Jumba said, setting up some monitoring equipment, to record visual and vital signs data for Angel and the babies. "I still can't figure out how they were able to do this. I did not design them for this functionality. It is impossible! How did you do it, 626?"

Neither Stitch nor Angel paid the question any attention. Lilo looked up at Jumba, smiling. Lilo had decided they should limit how many people came through here to look at the babies, until Angel felt they were ready for more exposure. As such, only Lilo, Stitch, and Jumba were allowed in the hyper fusion chamber. Lilo was there since Angel acepted her presence, Stitch was there as the father, and Jumba was there as doctor, although he was plainly lost. "Jumba, you made them by splicing DNA from several creatures together, right?"

"Yes. I have told this story before. But that doesn't-"

"Well, each of those creatures had its own mating cycle, right? And Stitch and Angel were made from the same creatures, right?" At Jumba's nod, Lilo continued. "In that case, when they thought they were ready for this next step, the mating instincts from all those creatures must have congealed and surfaced, teaching them how to go about it. It's like what Jeff Goldbloom said in Jurrasic Park; life found a way."

Jumba thought about this. "Yes, I suppose that could be the explanation...but how did they do it? Where are their sexual organs?" He started to reach forward to examine Angel and the pups, but pulled back as Angel snapped at him, her jaws clacking together millimeters from his hands. "Right. No touch puppies. Gotcha."

There was a knock at the door, and Stitch ran to open it. "Here's the little lady's order," Rueben said, pushing a cart so heavily laden with sandwhiches that only he or Stitch could push it. "Any idea how long this crazy appetite's gonna last? She's eating me out of ship and mess hall!"

"Naga. Mahalo plenty, cousin." Stitch took the cart to push it inside.

"Say, any idea when it'd be okay for me to see the babies?" Reuben asked hopefully.

"Tomorrow," Stitch said confidently. "Energizing be done then." Closing the door behind him, he carried the trolley up to Angel and started handing her the sandwhiches. She devoured them rapidly, as she had the six previous loads since morning.

Jumba, watching, began to pontificate. "It seems to generate the lactation the larvae need to survive, Angel must consume immense quantities of food. Logically, then, the lactations are extremely high in nutrient concentration, as they do not appear to consume that much individually each time they nurse. Also, the gradual energizing needed for their molecules as they grow will hopefully pass once they are able to move about on their own, otherwise we will constantly be chasing them down all over the island to herd them back here."

"As opposed to chasing them all over the island just to get them home for mealtimes," Lilo said, smiling. Suddenly, one of the pups seemed to shake a little, and he sprouted wings. "That one's likely to be trouble," she mumbled, staring at the size of the wings relative to the rest of the body mass.

"Indeed," Jumba said, staring. "That one's molecular density is rather low, and now that the wings have sprouted, it is plain that it is built for flight. Could possibly fly all around the world without tiring, once it learns to fly. Will examine later to determine if contains the philigapher."

"Philigapher?"

"It's an organ some races contain, attatched to the lungs. It allows them to breathe in space."

Lilo's eyes went wide. "If it does have it, we might have to chase that one all across the solar system?"

"Quite possibly. Based on how the energy it is absorbing is being focused, can probably propel itself via energy projection, like having rocket booster on butt. Wings, while normal flight capable, are probably as much for steering and staying aloft as propulsion."

Angel, having finished the sandwhiches, turned to Stitch. "Time," she whispered. Nodding, Stitch herded the other two out of the room, activating the hyper fusion chamber from the outside once the door was closed.

Heading towards the bridge to talk to Gantu, Jumba, Lilo, and Stitch got into a discussion. "626, perhaps you can tell me how you made the babies?"

"Naga. Angel want that kept private. Stitch keep private."

"You're really doing whatever she tells you just now, aren't you?" Lilo asked. Stitch nodded.

"Why?" Jumba asked, totally confused.

"Three reasons." Stitch held up one paw to count them off. "One: Stitch love Angel very much, and will do anything for Angel." Lilo nodded, understanding. Jumba nodded, still having trouble after all this time understanding 'love'. "Two: Stitch want be good father to babies, and Angel knows more than Stitch here." Lilo and Jumba nodded together, getting this perfectly. "Three: Stitch like insides in functional pattern, thank you very much."

Jumba laughed uproariously. "That's my 626!"

Lilo shook her head. "Stitch, I don't think Angel would really rearrange your internal organs."

Stitch shook his head. "Stitch not want take that chance."

As Jumba laughed, Lilo looked up at him. "So how does it feel to be a grandfather, Jumba?"

"Eh? What Lilo talking about?"

"Well, you made Stitch and the rest of the experiments, which kinda makes you their father, doesn't it?"

Jumba opened his mouth to object, and paused. "...I never thought about it that way. But...you're right, one could think of things that way..." Jumba got misty eyed, and wiped his eyes with a sniff. "Jumba has kids...and grandkids. I'm so happy!" He scooped Stitch into a bear hug.

"Love you too, Papa," Stitch said, a little misty eyed himself. After they got themselves under control, they continued on to the bridge.

Gantu waited for them on the bridge. "I've reported this turn of events to the Galactic Councilwoman. She is...somewhat concerned. She asks if she can trust you, Lilo, to keep the young ones under control while they grow, as well as to find their one true place once they are grown."

Lilo nodded. "I'm sure I can handle it. I mean, I've already done it 626 times. What's five more?"

Jumba laughed. "Wait until they are walking and see if you can still say that!"

Lilo chuckled nervously. 


End file.
